Suspended Tory councillor loses job after blaming immigrants and 'BAME community' for local lockdown
A Conservative councillor suspended by the party after he said black people, ethnic minorities and immigrants were partly to blame for local lockdown restrictions has lost his job on a housing association board.
Bob Allen said “illegal immigrants”, “the BAME community” and “morons that never obey the rules” were among those responsible for the spike in coronavirus cases across Greater Manchester in a Facebook message at the end of July.
The Tory politician will be stripped of his role on the board of Bolton at Home after discussions with Bolton Council, the local authority which recommended him for the role.
It follows the social media rant in which Mr Allen claimed it was unfair that he should be affected by restrictions brought in by the government on 31 July.
“Don’t penalise me over the increase in Covid cases in Greater Manchester. I’ve stuck to the rules for 4 long months,” he said. “Blame the 48,000 illegal immigrants, the BAME community and the morons that never obey the rules.”
He added: “Blame the PHE idiots who wrongly advised us, blame NHS managers who were totally unprepared, blame the Chinese for concealing the true facts and blame the government for not stopping thousands of flights into the UK from infected countries. We are being led by donkeys.”
The post led to his suspension by Bolton Council’s Conservative party group the following day.
“Within 21 days a meeting of the full Conservative group will take place where Cllr Allen will be invited to attend and present his case,” said the secretary of the local Tory group, councillor Stuart Haslam, at the time.
Jon Lord, chief executive of the Bolton at Home housing association, said: “Councillor Allen was nominated to our board by Bolton Council.
“Following recent discussions between Bolton at Home and the council, it can be confirmed that this is no longer the case and the council will be making a new nomination in due course.”
Mr Allen told the Manchester Evening News the comments had been taken out of context, but apologised to “anyone who may have been personally offended” by them. “I stand by the sentiment, but I could have worded it better.”
Bolton Council's Labour leader Nick Peel condemned the “shocking” and “dangerous” post. “He said the rise was down to the BAME community and morons in the white community. So some white people and everyone in the BAME community. These comments were certainly not acceptable.”
Mr Allen was reportedly suspended by his party back in 2009 after posting a picture of a gorilla next to blog entry about a fellow councillor.
